This Invention, the GRIP-OPERATED NAIL CLIPPER, relates generally to the field of hand-held tools and instruments. More specifically, this invention applies to devices to clip or nip human finger and toe nails.
In the common finger-and-toe nail clipper found universally in drug and other retail stores, the instrument is generally a small, compact, folding instrument which is finger-operated when the top bar is reversed to act as a pressure lever arm. However its compactness and design make it difficult for the normal person to insert the clipper cutting edges over the nail to be clipped. It is even more difficult to hold the clipper in place and to exert the necessary pressure on the lever arm to nip the nail clean. The instrument is short, slippery and difficult to grip firmly with just the two finger tips. Besides the normal person the less dexterous child, the aged, the arthritic or poor-sight handicapped people are frustrated in performing this personal chore. The pressure to nip the nail is limited by the shortness of the lever arm designed for compactness. Even in the longer toe nail clipper, the lever action is awkward and unwieldy for the operating (actuating) fingers are even farther away from the nail being clipped.
The Invention is the result of a long effort to devise a simple, inexpensive instrument that (1) can be operated with much less effort, (2) can be better controlled, (3) operated with more fingers and even with palm pressure, (4) compact, and (5) retain the better features of the common clipper.